It isn't often that America…

It isn't often that America has something to teach Canada, especially when conservation and management of natural resources are concerned. So, it came as a shock to me to learn exactly how legal wild take is currently done for Ontario falconers.

In the state in which I live, wild take wasn't around two decades ago. Even 15 years ago, I heard stories from my sponsor, talking about how she didn't get drawn for the permit that year, and had to go out of state to find a permit to trap. The saddest part was that the only thing that held these restrictions in place wasn't science. It was anger. Organizations had lobbied against science and hampered the trapping activities of falconers that had a net zero impact upon wild populations of hawks and falcons. it took years of hard work to even get the foot in the door to open our take, and now we are to the point that the DNR has expanded the max number of birds we can trap per year to levels we cant expect to meet. THAT is that it should be like.

That unfortunately is the climate america has fostered lately: Ignore the science, govern solely on knee jerk reactions. Allowing the expanded take of wild birds of prey to your falconers isn't a knee jerk reaction. its based on sound science and practical experience.

In addition to expanding take in general, it is incredibly smart to open the take of northern goshawks in the way you've proposed. You have navigated a way to legislate the protection of falconers who may not be prepared for these birds, you have found ways to protect the birds themselves.

That's the desire for every party involved here, to protect these birds. Please listen to sound judgement, practical experience, and science above all to help shape for decades to come how falconry SHOULD be regulated.